Day 6
Read Psalm 13
Matt Redmond was one of the more popular contemporary Christian artists of the 1990’s.
Churches all over the world sang his songs (and still do) every Sunday morning. But, shortly after September 11, 2001, Matt was looking through all of his songs and all of the songs of his contemporaries and he realized there were no contemporary songs of lament. Millions of people were in shock and fear and sadness and confusion and on Sunday morning all they had were songs about joy and happiness. They had nothing to sing to God that expressed the real feelings they were feeling. And so he wrote a song called, Blessed be Your Name, where he sings of praising God even through times of suffering and brokenness and walks through desert places. It might not be the best lament song ever written but it did recognize the need for different types of music in the life of the church. In the broken and chaotic world in which we live, lament is one of our most common emotions. Eugene Peterson joked that every church that has a Praise and Worship Team should also have a Lament Team. That is why the Psalms are so powerful.
There are more Psalms of Lament than any other type of Psalm. Psalms of Lament are about bringing your suffering, fears, struggles and disappointment to God. Psalm 13 is as good an example as there is. The Psalmist begins with the question, “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long, must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?” Who can’t relate to that? Don’t we ask how long, O LORD will we struggle with health problems? How long will we be without a job? How long will our children continue down the wrong paths? How long will our parents suffer? How long will things seem to just always go wrong? And the Lament Psalms confirm that we should be asking those questions; we need to ask those questions. We’re going to ask those questions anyway; Psalm 13 teaches us how to ask them in a God-ward direction.
The Psalm moves to the request in verse 3 – “Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.” David brings his laments to God because he wants God’s comfort; he wants God’s peace and hope. And then finally, there is trust. In verses 5-6, David says, “But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.” The reason David brings his laments to God is because He knows God is good and faithful. He remembers how God has worked in the past.
Prayer
Think through some recent times of lament. Have you been afraid to bring your complaints and disappointment and frustration to God? Spend some time praying those feelings.
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